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Monday, October 23, 2006

We played a great session of Ars Magica tonight as children living in or near the nearby Castle of Montferrand. The character I played is below - the negatives in all the characteristics are courtesy of childhood - she has very good presence and communication for an eight year old.

Rosette

Rosette is the talkative and inquisitive daughter of Albert the Steward to Lord Bernard de Montferrand. She seems to know everyone in the Castle's household, from the stable boys to the highest-ranking members of the Noble family - not to mention everything that is going on. She has spent all her life within the walls of the Castle or on short trips to the nearest towns with her father and, unlike many her age, has spent much time engrossed in the goings on of people many years her senior. These people seem willing to indulge her curiosity, answering her questions when they find the time to quench her pestering. When caught being naughty she is adept at talking her way out of the situation and escaping often with little punishment.

The only thing Rosette loves more than talking to people and finding absolutely everything there is to know about them is picking flowers especially red, blue and white ones.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Sertorius continues to write letters. Below is his letter to Bernadus Cupidus; the Quaesitor who is investigating both Sertorius and Zeebebah. For those interested some thoughts on Sertorius' plans for the next year are below the letter. He still has to write a letter to his Parens.

Quaesitor Bernadus Cupidus,

I am writing to bring to your attention the suspicious death of a Magus visiting the Provencal Tribunal from the Iberian Tribunal.

After some discussions with my Sodales it appears to me that the Magus Silanus may have met an untimely end near the Benedictine Abbey in Pamiers.

His possessions, appearance – save what appears to be extreme unexplained aging – and the knowledge that he was meaning to visit me at the Covenant of Infractus Summus Redivivus lead me to believe that he met an untimely fate on his travels through the Provencal Tribunal.

Silanus, through my Parens, is close to me and I am sure that you would find it disconcerting that an unexplained death of a Magi has taken place within the Tribunal. I am doubly sure that a Quaesitor of your standing would not like such a precedent as Magi dying without explanation within the Tribunal.

If you have questions, please, either write or visit though I have no information other than suspicion that his death was untoward based on the news I have received. Should you investigate and discover anything I would be grateful for information from such an accomplished investigator as you.

Your fellow Quaesitor the Magus Marcus is also aware of this death, most recently he travelled to our Covenant for a recent storytelling Festival, should you feel he is more capable than you in such matters then I am sure the investigation will be drawn to a suitably satisfactory conclusion with which you could find no fault. It is a shame you could not also attend our Festival, maybe you will visit during one of our subsequent Festivals.

Faithfully,

Magus Q. Sertorius Sulla

What Sertorius’ is about for the next three Seasons.

The current challenge is preparing for the Tribunal, to defend himself and help Zebeebah defend herself should she require it (though he is sure that she will not being a Guernicus) as well as well do his part in having the Covenant established.

To this end, he plans to read the Proceedings of the Provencal Tribunal three times prior to attending. So far, he has read the Summa once – he plans on reading it this Winter coming if no one has a problem with this, then once more in the following year. Additionally he is attempting to engage the other Magi of the Tribunal whenever he can and make a positive impression – buying books, writing letters and making sure he says hello when one crosses his path.

He wishes to discover the reason for Silanus’ death and is doing his best to discover this through communication with his Parens as well as both the Quaesitors in the Provencal Tribunal – see attachment with a letter for Cupidus; he is going to write to Marcus also – his plan is to have both of them investigating at the same time through trying to have them compete with each other. While very Confident he knows he is not an investigator. To this end hopefully while the next two/three seasons pass quickly he can learn a few things through correspondence in preparation for travelling back to the Covenant of his Parens following the Tribunal.

He wishes to improve his understanding and use of Muto and how he can apply it to himself and his associates – particularly in improving their combat related abilities, characteristics and equipment. His first project is personal; to invent a spell that improves his flying abilities. He will probably do this in Autumn.

He also has in the back of his mind the dream of Titus’ involving Wolves and the disappearance of Cruz, he would like to create a spell that can allow him to transform into a wolf to travel with Cruz as well as a spell that allows him to communicate with Cruz to find out more about Wolves in the region, especially magical wolves as Sertorius quite likes animals he wants to work towards gaining a familiar.

The first thing he is doing though is to create the Necklace this summer – he hopefully has time to speak with Garnier the Silversmith to get him to make a necklace in time for summer as well as the new Blacksmith Ali who he presumes Sir Bertrand has employed – he wants Ali to turn his partial Chain mail into a full set of chain mail as well as make some modifications on the back of the suit to allow for the protrusion of wings.

Very long-winded but hopefully people now know what I am planning on doing.

Andrew Galan is an internationally published poet and co-producer of Australia’s nationally renowned poetry slam BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!. His poetry is visceral, immediate, been described by reviewers as ‘riddled with satire’, and is imagination and reality meeting, sometimes to fight, sometimes to eat. Showcased at events such as the Woodford, National Folk, and Queensland Poetry festivals and at Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam, his first collection is That Place of Infested Roads (life during wartime), KF&S Press. Andrew’s next book is for all the veronicas (The Dog Who Staid).